Jane and the Fire – Part XXX

Jane is back! In 1958, young Jane has just moved to the city of Chicago, Illinois with her parents and cousins. Jane and her friends are continuing to chip away towards uncovering the mysteries of the Three Thugs. They’re settling in for a peaceful Saturday morning breakfast when something unexpected seems to have occurred…

The Hungry Eagle was filling up with eager breakfasters. The air was thick with conversation and the sizzle of food on the frying pan. It’s a struggle to step around all the people to find her friends and siblings again. When she finds their booth again, it’s empty. The half-emptied plates are still there, but the children have disappeared. Jane looks around. In the crowd in the shop, it’s hard to see at all. Where…?

She looked all around her but saw no trace of her cousins or the twins. Unsure completely about where they could be, Jane pushed her way to the counter where Paige and Don’s parents were busily serving breakfast.

“Paige and Don? No, Jane, they haven’t come back here with your cousins, they must be sitting somewhere in here,” Mr. Landry said, trying to wipe his face and a full jug of maple syrup which had spilled onto the counter simultaneously. He mixed up his hands, however, and smeared a washcloth soaked with maple syrup all over his face and accidentally swiped a clean washcloth into a puddle of syrup. Bamboozled, he stopped altogether, and immediately an irate customer demanded another French toast, claiming that his original was far too salty. “They’ve got to be here, Jane,” a harried Mrs. Landry supplied. “Find them in here, would you? It worries me that they’re wandering when the shop is so busy…” She too was called away by a large family ordering pancakes.

Jane squeezed her way back to the booth where their food still sat, growing cold. Heartrate racing, she stood on top of a chair, looking all around. There wasn’t a trace of any of them in the entire store!

From the faintest corner of her peripheral vision she noticed some movement. Outside, a burly worker with a sack over his shoulder was pushing his way through pedestrians heading for The Hungry Eagle. He was heading towards a large black motorcar where another equally burly workman waited already. But the sack wasn’t still as it should have been. It moved, wriggling and kicking. The workman adjusted his grip on it even as its efforts knocked his golf cap from his head. He bent to pick it up, and the other workman barked at him to hurry it.

Jane felt her stomach sink. It had to be a kidnapping. She couldn’t wait to warn anyone. She had to run and check. Without another thought she dove for the door.

“We haven’t got all day, Jan,” growled the workman waiting at the car. “Why don’t you try lifting for a change, then, Jigger?” snapped Jan, adjusting the sack over his other shoulder.

“I’ve got a delicate shoulder just now,” Jigger said piously, “Doctor’s orders not to strain it.”

“I’d just like to see the doctor’s note for evidence is what I’d like,” Jan said, with bottomless scorn. Jane had grabbed Don’s bike.

How is Jane planning to save her cousins and friends? Read on!